h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm just sayin', is all!

YES
Self awareness.
Being a human I can only answer the question, as I see it put to me, as a human.
I do not believe the dog or the plant are making 'decisions' they are following a survival program.
I suppose that we differ because you are answering the question biologically, and me spiritually.
The biological is easy enough to follow, the spiritual includes those grand and also simple things you refer to.

Both men are a bit old for my liking actually, but if I had to make the choice it would have to be intelligence over brawn!
Orlando Bloom is my flavour of the month anyway.

Go Hasslefree.

Amanda

I just don't really see anything that special about humans - we feel as though we're on an entirely higher level of emotional and mental capability than other animals, and this seems reasonable enough, but how do we actually know? We look at animals and fail to recognise any of the things we count as special in ourselves - they don't communicate intelligently in any way we can understand and show no signs of possessing the understanding we have of the world. But surely it's just as possible that their ways of thinking and communicating are just so utterly different from ours that we cannot imagine them as being anywhere near our level of intelligence - maybe they are as sentient as us, but in a completely different way.

"but how do we actually know?"

Because we are aware of it, because nasty lab tests tell us so, humans are not superior, they just have an *opportunity to grow spiritually and animals don't.
Animals are great, wild and instinctive, they don't comtemplate their navels, they weren't made that way and for a reason.
Animals are what they are, and perfect as what they are.

I believe in reincarnation, which includes the animal body as part of the journey.


*note opportunity not always taken.

pretty f-in' impressive. you guys nipped the schwarzenegger vs picard thing in the bud and got back on track!

hey, i wanted to see what you guys think about this:

there's a psychiatrist at Mayo who is giving a talk on "spirituality and the brain"
the flyer that advertises this talk includes this:

"you might want to ponder the following questions:
If the mind is in every cell of the body, could the sould be there also?
What role does hte brain play in the spiritual experience?
Is "walking toward the light" a spiritual or neurological near deat experience?
Does God speak to us thru the limbic system?

...believes that the souls speaks to us thru the brain. "the brain is the transducer between the body and the soul...defines spirituality as the aspect of the psyche that deals with the metaphysical and the abstract. It includes the religious and mystical experience. it is the area of the mind that elevates us above the concrete and the mundane."

"spirituality can include a search for a sense of increased awareness, nearness, ad communication with a higher power. it involves a number of presumably exlusively human cognitive functoins such as particular modes of awareness, imagination, creativity, and specific forms of emtion."

my response is best captured by this:

hey, Hasselfree, i eagerly await your input, which is always a pleasure to read.
and, Amanda, you, too, unless your head hurts

gaffer, too. whadaya think?

oh, btw, about that lecture. SusY won't go with me b/c she think's she won't be able to hear anything over my hysterical laughter
she didn't give peteY a after lunch, either
"too goofy" she says

Sounds like a load of hogwash to me - I've never believed in any kind of soul, let alone one that "occupies every cell in the body".

I dont think that the mind is in every cell of the body.

I believe that when the brain is dying all sorts of things happen to it. You think you see things but do not.

to Gaffer,
i hear ya about putting us on a pedestal above all other organisms on Earth
i think of consciousness as a spectrum with different kinds of consciousness. dolphins have a certain consciousness that he cannot conceive, just as they cannot conceive ours. i am not sure where consciousness stops; just how simplistic the nervous system can be and still have a correlating mind.

to Hasselfree,
you contemplate your belly button?
and, what do you think is the prerequisite for self-awareness?
how about for spirituality? are humans the only organisms that are capable of this?
what about a dolphin spirituality?

to Amanda,
um... HI THERE!!

petey OUT!

Everything is on a level playing field I reckon regards animals and plants and things.
We are superior in the sense of what we have achieved.
(Someone will disagree and go on about the things that animals achieve and how can I be so self centerd to think we are superior) Do I care? NO))
We are higher in the evolutionary ladder.
Our lives have a different meaning to other living things.

Life has no set meaning, its all a load of crap.

(Can you tell my mania has gone peteY?)

Amanda out

amanda,

i dig your new name

i feel today

and how many picards do you think it would take to kick arnold's a$$?

my guess is around a dozen or so...
IF all of 'em are armed with submachine guns

peteY out!

ps:
gaffer,
i hear ya about that brain/spirituality thing. i don't know what the F that dude was smoking when he came up with the mind in every cell idea. that's about the most psychotic thing i've ever heard

Right on. Down with humans! Maybe consciousness never stops - maybe there's an infinite scale of relativity, with every living thing having it's own level of intellect and understanding. I can't really imagine anything having no real intelligence at all.

Let it be known:

SusY wants the world to know that
"I like to give PeteY hugs, just not at work! You need to add that line. susY adores PeteY, but susY does not want to spark the interest of the Mayo Paparazzi."
you see, there are a lot of nosy people here at mayo who make up wild stories with no basis on reality.

My new name is not very exciting. But thanks for humoring me.
I am suddenly feeling very agitated and want an arguement, so some one say something controversial or something.

Amanda out.

You stink!

Madness! I must stink if you can smell me from there! My goodness.
Oh, I am losing my agression now. I can not be bothered.
Sorry folks.
I have changed my name again.
I think this one is better.

Amanda out

Let it be known:

SusY wants the world to know that

"I like to give PeteY hugs, just not at work! You need to add that line. susY adores PeteY, but susY does not want to spark the interest of the Mayo Paparazzi."

you see, there are a lot of nosy people here at mayo who make up wild stories with no basis on reality.

hey, amanda! you're all again? peteY's sorry
here's one and one and one to make you feel better

and no comment about this?

x picards carrying submachine guns = 1 schwarzenegger

what is "x"?

oops! double post of susY's e-mail

and, amanda, ya think i should change my name again, too?